Maybe Happy Ending – 10 November 2024

Maybe Happy Ending follows the story of two retired, outdated Helperbots, Oliver/Helperbot 3 (Darren Criss) and Claire/Helperbot 5 (Helen J. Shen), who share a journey to Juju Island that changes their existences in magical ways. While Oliver’s reason for going on this journey is to reunite with his owner, James (Marcus Choi), Claire wants to go because her battery is broken and she knows that she is running out of time before she shuts down for good (a motivation which she does not disclose to Oliver). Their journey is comedic and vibrant, as they come to love each other as more than a traveling companion and see the world outside their respective rooms as full of wonder.

Criss is more rigid and robotic in his movements than Shen, because he represents an older model of Helperbot. His stiffness also creates awkwardness and his lovably quirky personality—presumably Helperbot 3’s aren’t as emotionally advanced as well as technologically advanced as Helperbot 5’s. Though uncertain if director Michael Arden wanted Criss to hold back vocally for this reason, Shen certainly blew him out of the water. Where Criss provided comedic smiles and was frequently the butt of a joke, Shen’s character was deeply relatable and her vocal performance was compelling, dynamic, and nuanced. I enjoyed seeing the female character be more developed, knowledgeable, and aware of her options, because in the helping profession in real life, women are often subjugated.

The sound design (Peter Hylenski) included moments where the robots would lip sync sounds the way Siri changes voices or ringtones that interrupt a dialogue on the phones of today. It seemed as though the robot would open their mouth and the sound would come out. Though a little jarring at first, when the technique was used by both Helperbots in the scene in which they talked through the cup-on-string telephone, it found its comedic foothold. I enjoyed Gil Brentley (Dez Duron)’s performances even when somewhat distracted by Darren Criss lip syncing along. Duron had (arguably) the most impressive voice in the show, and his existence outside of the world of these Helperbots as a human being was a foil to Oliver’s former owner James– Brentley showed the sincere beauty in humanity while James showed that humans can be selfish and cruel.

Maybe Happy Ending held space for many beautiful moments, as well as some painful ones. The most beautiful scene by far was the scene where Claire and Oliver get to see the lighting bugs. Members of the orchestra appear onstage serenading them on a rotating turntable as the sky changes colors and the fireflies dazzle the Helperbots. Visually stunning, this moment epitomizes the good in the world, which is always there even if we have to take a journey (or a journey within ourselves) to appreciate it. There were also moments of trauma, in which the Helperbots played back memories of owners who retired them because their lifestyles with other human beings were hindered by having these perfect robotic helpers to interact with who seem to have been programmed to agree. In these moments, projections took over, identifying the owners and other involved parties as though targets in a video game. In these moments, the humans were made out to be a lot of things that one expects robots to be: heartless, selfish, unfeeling, ungrateful, not understanding, uncaring, distant, out of touch, binary/black and white… which begs a question about whether new beings always turn out to, in some ways, resemble their creators.

As a tech savvy futuristic story about robots, it felt poignant that a lot of this imagined future closely resembled the frustrations of humanity today. Some examples include: knowing that we’re running out of time, discarding things we love to appease people we love, the inevitability of love not lasting forever, hiding one’s true identity for fear of discrimination, fear of leaving our comfort zones, and a resigned acceptance that the way things are is the way things have to be. The seminal difference is that these Helperbots had the choice to erase parts of their memories—a feature many people covet. In the end, Claire’s inevitable shut down was going to be painful to Oliver, so they both agreed to erase their time together. The final moment is much like the beginning, because Claire does not remember Oliver and goes to him for help with her battery. Oliver indicates to the audience (via his plant HwaBoon) that he chose to remember, presumably knowing that she would go through with forgetting and he could watch her existence end, just with some emotional distance and not with the relationship of lovers.

I really only had one structural critique of this play, but I think it merits mentioning. The ending felt like many ending attempts displayed in sequence, each of which would have been an interesting choice. As an audience member, it became difficult to feel catharsis because after several scenes that felt like endings, it was uncertain when we got to the real ending that it was, in fact, the final ending. Though certainly appropriate for a play like this, after a couple of these scenes I stopped expecting any one of them to be the end, and was somewhat taken aback when the show actually ended. Thematically, that’s kind of what I extrapolate would happen to Oliver with Claire if Maybe Happy Ending were to keep going.

Technologically brilliant with beautiful design elements, Maybe Happy Ending served as a poignant reminder that humanity is short, and even though we think we want someone perfect who will say yes to everything and absorb our interests (like a Helperbot), it is not unfathomable to think that we’d give that all up for someone who keeps us interested (like Oliver’s owner did for his son and Claire’s owner did for her partner). Claire and Oliver embody an imperfect relationship between two very different beings, and it’s beautiful. Maybe Happy Ending reminds humanity to keep living, because we don’t know our ending—it might be a good one.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Polk & Co.